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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25608187">take my face, and desecrate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/evelinaonline/pseuds/evelinaonline'>evelinaonline</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Drugs, Dysfunctional Family, Family Bonding, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Punch, No Incest, Not Canon Compliant, POV Ben Hargreeves, POV Third Person, Possession, Pre-Canon, post-Season 1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:21:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,578</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25608187</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/evelinaonline/pseuds/evelinaonline</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time it happened, it was an accident. After all, possessing your brother is a simple mistake that can happen to anyone. Right?</p><p>(In which Ben possesses Klaus, and they have to tell the others.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ben Hargreeves &amp; Everyone, Ben Hargreeves &amp; Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves &amp; Everyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>459</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>take my face, and desecrate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whatisthiswhatamidoing/gifts">Whatisthiswhatamidoing</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This based on a request I got around three-four months ago: "Try as he might, Klaus just can’t figure out how to conjure Ben, and the others are getting antsy, but Ben *can* possess klaus, and it’s the only way Ben has to interact with his siblings. How they feel about it is up to you, but I’d love to see the siblings reactions to Ben-as-Klaus"</p><p>It's a bit sloppy because I really wanted to post this before S2, but thankfully my beta <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/totallyevan/pseuds/totallyevan">totallyevan</a> put up with me once more and made it a little bit less insufferable. Hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time it happened, it was an accident.</p><p>Klaus had just gotten out of rehab—almost ten days clean, the longest he'd been in a long time—and was on his way to meet with his dealer. Needless to say, Ben wasn't exactly happy about it.</p><p>But what could he say? 'Hey Klaus, maybe you should lay off drugs for a while, you know, since you overdosed and all?' No. It didn't matter what Ben said, so he didn't. The best he could hope for was for Klaus to go through the process safely. After all, Ben wasn't too keen on other ghosts following them, even if he'd learned to tolerate them.</p><p>Things were different this time.</p><p>For starters, there were barely any ghosts around, and even those that were there kept mostly quiet, hiding in alleys, not daring to take a step closer to Klaus. Most importantly, though, that… <em>thing</em> Klaus' dealer had just handed him, a crumbled plastic bag with Klaus' fix and a needle that was, hopefully, disinfected, it made Ben shiver.</p><p>"Are you sure you're not up for waffles or something?" Ben asked as Klaus led them in a dark alleyway.</p><p>"Out of money," Klaus said, his voice almost shaky. "And it's not like you can eat."</p><p>Usually Ben would have gotten upset at any remark related to him being a ghost, but there were other matters at hand. "It's never stopped you before."</p><p>Klaus suddenly came to a halt. He didn't spare Ben a single look as he leaned against the wall to take the cocaine and a metal spoon out of his pocket. He bit onto the spoon's handle so that he could empty the contents of the bag on it. "Doesn't matter," he said through grunted teeth. Ben's eyes were pinned on the bag—Klaus emptied a third of it, then shoved it back in his pocket with force. The lighter came out next, and Klaus held it underneath the spoon. "As I said, we're out of cash."</p><p>"Treating ourselves to a five-star alleyway then?" Ben asked. Bringing up the issue of where Klaus would be spending the night seemed like a good way to ignore the anxiety rising in his chest. "You think they'll have room service this time?"</p><p>A snort escaped Klaus, causing a portion of the drug to spill on the floor. Ben secretly wished all of it would.</p><p>His question was ignored, of course. Klaus was much too focused on his task now. Ben could tell by the way his muscles tensed up and his hands shook. An addict, thirty seconds away from his fix. A child, terrified of the ghosts that lurked in the dark.</p><p>Klaus took the needle out of his pocket, and Ben's shiver returned.</p><p>"Sure you wanna do this?" he said without missing a beat.</p><p>Klaus, now filling the needle with the drug, chuckled. "It's little too late for second thoughts."</p><p>"No, Klaus," Ben said. "I really mean it. You can't—"</p><p>Klaus groaned, taking the spoon out of his mouth and holding it with his free hand. "Right, you're just worried about me, as always."</p><p>Ben bit his lip, his eyes falling on the needle in Klaus' hand. Klaus didn't really do drugs that required needles—pills were much more convenient, you could just pop one in whenever—but when he did, he always had the decency of being careful, and that wasn't it; the needle was crooked, slightly rusty, and had definitely been used before.</p><p>"Listen, I know you want—<em>need</em> this," Ben said, doing his best to ignore how shaky his own voice was. He needed to be calm. Patient. For Klaus, and for his own sanity. "But hold on just a little longer, okay? We'll find something else."</p><p>Klaus huffed.</p><p><em>Patience</em>, Ben reminded himself. He couldn't let this go south. "Klaus, I mean it, that needle—"</p><p>"That needle is what's gonna make the ghosts shut the hell up!"</p><p>But Ben had had it. And so he finally let himself be angry. "Oh please! There aren't even that many."</p><p>"Oh, so that's what this is about then?" Klaus gritted through his teeth, a smile that couldn't mean any good decorating his face. "Benny the Friendly Ghost wants to wait for his dead friends to appear before Klaus gets rid of them? I get that you're sick of me or whatever, but they're <em>dead</em>, Ben."</p><p>"That's not fair," Ben said. He knew it was just words, just Klaus being Klaus, trying to get to him as always, but it didn't make them any less hurtful. "You don't mean it. You're just mad that I'm right."</p><p>"No," Klaus said. "I'm <em>mad</em> because I <em>need</em> this and you're in the <em>way.</em>" He threw the spoon on the ground, cocaine all over. It didn't matter; what Klaus wanted was already in the needle itself. He raised his sleeve and tested the needle's pressure a bit. "Only you're not really, are you? In the way?"</p><p>
  <em>They're just words.</em>
</p><p>"Because you're dead. It's your word against the real world."</p><p>
  <em>He doesn't mean any of it.</em>
</p><p>"Anyway, it benefits both of us. You won't need to yell me awake from another ghost ambush. You can take a nice stroll instead, or whatever it is that you do when you're not playing guardsman."</p><p>But words be damned, did they make Ben furious.</p><p>Without missing a beat or even thinking about it, he took a step forward to grab the needle, slap it out of Klaus' hands, to do <em>something</em> to stop this and then—</p><p>Ben wasn't really sure what happened.</p><p>The first thing he noticed was that he was, indeed, holding the needle. He could <em>feel</em> it in his hand, his fingers wrapping around its plastic texture coated with sweat from having heated it up too much until suddenly he could feel much more than that.</p><p>He could feel the midnight breeze against his skin. Could feel the weight of his clothes. The ground against his feet. The splitting headache, his eyes trying to blink it away, his nose wrinkling at the smell of garbage from the bin next to him.</p><p>Ben could not see Klaus.</p><p>"What the f—<em>what the FUCK?!"</em></p><p>Ben was certain—almost certain—that the words had come out of his mouth, but that definitely hadn't been his voice. "Klaus?" he said again just to test things out, but nothing changed. He coughed, in hopes to clear his throat a bit. He kept telling himself that was all it was, a bad cough, completely ignoring the fact that ghosts didn't get sick.</p><p>'<em>What the hell just happened?'</em></p><p>It was due to the echo in his head that Ben noticed; it wasn't Klaus that had went away, but rather Ben himself. He finally let go of the needle that still clutched in his hand, more than happy to finally see it fall. Only it wasn't really his hand. And this wasn't really Ben. At least not his body.</p><p>He turned his palm around, inspecting it. The word <em>Hello</em> was written on it, with black ink, never to fade away. On his other hand, <em>Goodbye</em>. Ben scanned his body from head to toe as well as he could without a mirror and felt himself—only that he wasn't really himself, was he?—tense up in his coat. Klaus' coat.</p><p>'<em>Ben—'</em></p><p>"I don't know!" he yelled. Did he even need to yell, if he was apparently <em>inside</em> his brother's body? Could Klaus read his thoughts? If so, did he already know how confused he was, how <em>scared</em> he was, how—</p><p>'<em>I do,'</em> Klaus said, or thought, or whatever this was. '<em>Ben, how are you doing this?'</em></p><p>"I don't…" Ben mumbled, surprising himself when the words weren't in his voice once more. "I just wanted to take the drugs away."</p><p>'<em>More like you wanted to punch me.'</em></p><p>"Same thing," Ben said. "I think. I'm—I can't think." He couldn't help the laugh that escaped him, wondering if that was his doing, or Klaus'.</p><p>Ben took a deep breath, leaning against the wall for balance. None of this made sense. It didn't make any sense at <em>all.</em> He couldn't possibly be possessing Klaus.</p><p>Unless.</p><p>"My name is Klaus Hargreeves, and I am an idiot," Ben said, to prove to himself that this was real, and maybe, just maybe, to piss Klaus off.</p><p>'<em>Hey, rude!'</em></p><p>Ben smirked. "And Ben is my favorite brother, and always, always right."</p><p>'<em>Stop lying.'</em></p><p>"And I will listen to everything he says from now on."</p><p>'<em>Ben!'</em></p><p>"Sorry, sorry," Ben said. He tilted his head back, looking up to the night sky. "I just… Holy shit."</p><p>'<em>That's an understatement.'</em></p><p>"It's kinda cool though."</p><p>'<em>Wow, you're really taking this way better than I thought you would.'</em></p><p>Ben frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"</p><p>'<em>I'm high, aren't I?'</em></p><p>The frown didn't last for long. He found himself giggling again, and somehow, he could tell Klaus was laughing too.</p><p>Maybe things weren't so bad.</p>
<hr/><p>For an accident, it happened quite often after that. It took them a while to figure out how it worked, but in the end, this whole possession thing was indeed not that bad after all. Most of the time. Sometimes.</p><p>Ben really wanted to hate it, but it was hard, considering it was his only connection to the real world. He got to actually taste the waffles they got every Friday night, and interact with other people—he did not regret forcing Klaus to join a book club one bit—and even got to make a few acquaintances. He couldn't use his real name, but it was nice.</p><p>In exchange for sharing Klaus' body, Ben dealt with the drugs.</p><p>When Klaus' cravings became too much, he let Ben take over. Of course they never really went away—Ben couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit bad for all the times he yelled at Klaus to get his shit together—but he knew that being there helped Klaus.</p><p>Until Five came back. Until they learned about the apocalypse. Until Dave.</p><p>When Klaus dug up his secret stash in his room, and Ben found himself wanting to punch him in the face, he did. Ben didn't go through him, didn't go <em>in</em> him, he <em>punched</em> him, with his own body and limbs, like he had never died.</p><p>It was yet another power they'd need to work on.</p><p>It wasn't as if they had the time to understand it, though. It happened two more times after that; when their home was falling to pieces, and when Ben released the Horror for the first time since his death. After that, every day was a haze, as they frantically tried to stop the apocalypse.</p><p>So when they finally did, and their siblings requested to see Ben, neither of them knew what to do.</p><p>"We need to tell them," Ben had said while pacing in Klaus' room.</p><p>"Then let's show them."</p><p>A few hours later, they found themselves in the living room, surrounded by their family as they eagerly waited to talk to Ben again. Ben could feel the anxiety rising in his chest, and not even burying his hands in his pockets seemed to help. The others were expecting to see him—not Klaus. It wasn't as if they had much of a choice though.</p><p>Ben shared a reassuring nod with Klaus, and let the rest happen.</p><p>"There," Ben said, stretching his new form. It was oddly comfortable, more comfortable than having his own body manifested, although he supposed that was because Klaus hadn't learned how to do it properly yet.</p><p>There was a moment of silence, in which Ben found himself staring at his siblings—or rather, being stared <em>at</em> by his siblings. And yet, regardless of how intense their stares were, it was more than clear they had no idea who they were face to face with.</p><p>"Well…?" Luther said. "Where is he?"</p><p>Ben had to fight the urge to laugh, <em>Klaus'</em> urge to laugh, but a huff slipped out of his lips anyway. Ben glared at his brother; mentally, at least.</p><p>"Klaus," Diego said, as he fiddled with his blade. "Where's Ben?"</p><p>Ben swallowed, then took a deep breath. This was it. He'd been waiting for this moment for years, trying to come up with the right words to say, the right way to move, to simply exist, and now that it was finally here, he—</p><p>'<em>Christ, Ben, do you need help opening your mouth or someth—'</em></p><p>"Hi," Ben said in Klaus' voice, shutting him up. Not that he could actually block Klaus out, but he hoped he got the message across. Ben cleared his throat, looking down and shoving his hands in his—oh, right. Klaus' leggings didn't have any pockets. He clumsily crossed his arms instead, leaning against the wall. "Hi," he repeated, the words coming out much more clear this time.</p><p>"No."</p><p>It was Allison who spoke first.</p><p>Even though she'd been the first one to apparently figure out what was happening, she was staring at him with the most dumbfounded expression Ben had ever laid his eyes upon. It wasn't as if he could blame her though. He'd hardly believed it himself, the first time it'd happened.</p><p>"What do you mean, '<em>no?'"</em></p><p>"Christ, Luther," Five mumbled, his tone stuck between annoyance and disbelief. "Can't you see? Or do you have <em>that</em> much of a pea brain—"</p><p>"I don't understand either," Vanya interrupted, and Five immediately shut up, as if he was ashamed of his comment. "You guys can see Ben?"</p><p>"Not… quite," Allison continued, taking a step closer to him. She scanned him from head to toe, again and again, a question hanging from the tip of her tongue. "You're… No."</p><p>"Yes," Ben said, because what else could he say?</p><p>'<em>I mean, it's just a suggestion, but you </em>could <em>start by telling everyone what's going on. Although I'll admit, having them figure it out themselves is much more—'</em></p><p>Maybe Klaus did have a point.</p><p>Ben cleared his throat again. "I know that's not what you were expecting but…" he tried to look past Allison's gaze, but she was standing a bit too close for comfort, and looking past her only made him lock gazes with another sibling. "It's all we have. For now."</p><p>Allison shook her head, finally taking a step back. "I need to sit down."</p><p>It was at that moment that Klaus decided to burst into another flare of giggles, and this time Ben hadn't been prepared to block it. The sound that escaped him ended up being something between laughter and straight-up choking, which startled not only Ben, but everyone else in the room as well.</p><p>Ben pinched himself on the back of his hand and pounded his right foot on the ground in order to steady himself, finally taking over control again. "Are you going to let me do this or not?" he said firmly and out-loud, because Klaus was obviously not in the mood to listen.</p><p>"Let you do what?" Luther asked, helping Allison to sit down on the couch. "Klaus, this makes no—"</p><p>"It's not Klaus though, is it?" Diego interrupted. It looked as if he was about to jump at Luther with another insult, but he pointed his blade to Ben's direction instead. "Not just him, anyway."</p><p>Vanya was the next to get it. Her eyes widened, shock mixed with curiosity, the way they always were when she was intrigued ever since they were kids, and oh, how much Ben had missed that. "I thought Klaus was going to conjure you."</p><p>Ben shrugged, finally letting his mouth curl into a smile. Klaus did nothing to fight it. "That was the plan."</p><p>"This makes no sense," Luther said again. Ben could feel the next spiral of laughter building up inside him, and he almost let it out to mess with Luther. "Klaus, where's Ben—?"</p><p>"Klaus <em>is</em> Ben, you moron!" Five said. He was the first to actually voice their realisation, and he clearly wouldn't have been able to hold it in for much longer. His attention was turned back to Ben, strongly resembling Allison just a few moments ago. "The question is <em>how?"</em></p><p>"Nice to see you too," Ben said. He hadn't expected Five to break into tears per se, but he was the slightest bit disappointed that his first reaction had been to play detective instead of asking him how he was or something.</p><p>'<em>Don't take it too personally,'</em> Klaus popped in. '<em>Remember the funeral? You know that's just how he is.'</em></p><p>'<em>All too well,'</em> Ben thought. And then, '<em>Now shut up, please,'</em> because keeping up with five other people was hard enough already. Having an internal monologue in—</p><p>'—my <em>body,'</em> Klaus finished his thought. '<em>Technically you're the invader.'</em></p><p>'<em>At least I'm not the annoying one.'</em></p><p>'<em>I think they're talking to us.'</em></p><p>'<em>What do you mean?'</em></p><p>'<em>To you, actually.'</em></p><p>'<em>What? Klaus, I don't—"</em></p><p>"… this been going on for?"</p><p>Ben blinked. Diego had been in the middle of talking to him about, about what, really? And when had Ben sat down? No, not Ben, Klaus had. He must have gained back control and settled on the chair next to the fireplace as they were arguing, and now everyone was staring at them, at <em>Ben</em>, and he had no idea what was going on.</p><p>"Sorry?" Ben said, feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment.</p><p>"I said, how long has this been going on for?" Diego repeated the question.</p><p>Ben considered replying honestly, but something, some<em>one</em>, in the back in his head told him to lay off the details for a while. "Long," Ben said, playing with his hands on his lap. "I've, uh… I've talked to you before."</p><p>"You've talked to us?" Allison asked, her eyebrow quirking up.</p><p>"No," Ben quickly corrected. "Just Diego. Once or twice." He tried to shove the rest of the words in the back of his throat, but… "<em>More like, thrice, fourice, fice</em>—<em>Klaus,</em> come <em>on</em>, these aren't even real words!"</p><p>Diego let out a huff, finally taking a seat of his own on the other chair. "Jesus, that's…"</p><p>"Crazy, I—<em>we</em> know," Ben said, and then forced himself to cough the rest of the sentence away, before it turned to a direction he didn't want to follow. Klaus had always been a pain in the ass to control when he wasn't feeling up to cooperating, but now he was <em>sober</em>, and his powers were much stronger than Ben's stubbornness.</p><p>'<em>It's because I'm bored.'</em></p><p>'<em>It's because you're an asshole.'</em></p><p>"What about the Icarus Theater?" Luther asked. "You were… You were <em>you</em>, back then. So why aren't you…?"</p><p>"In my own body?" Ben offered, and chuckled. <em>Willingly</em> chuckled. "The thing is, we don't really… know how this works. Manifesting, I mean. Not that this is any better, but—"</p><p>"Interesting," Five said, his chin resting on his hand. "Dad always talked about how Klaus had only scratched the surface of his powers, but this…"</p><p>Ben couldn't help but agree. It'd been years since that night in the alleyway, and he still couldn't wrap his head around what was happening. Having to explain it wasn't exactly helpful either.</p><p>"Mom made cookies," Vanya said, breaking the silence. "I could go and bring some, assuming, uh… <em>can</em> you taste them?"</p><p>Ben smiled. "I can. Cookies sound great."</p><p>'<em>Booo, I'm not in the mood for cookies.'</em></p><p>'<em>Too bad. We're having them.'</em></p><p>'<em>You have too much of a sweet tooth, my stomach's gonna hurt for days.'</em></p><p>'<em>Not my problem right now. Vanya offered us some cookies, and therefore we're having—'</em></p><p>"Sorry sis, it's gonna have to be a hard pass on this one," <em>Klaus</em> said, and it took everything in Ben not to punch himself in the face. "Maybe after some <em>actual</em> dinner, we could—Ben for Christ's sake, cut it out!"</p><p>'<em>You're being so unfair. This isn't about you, it's </em>about me and the others!" Ben finished his thoughts out loud.</p><p>"Uh, guys?" Luther said. "What is happening?"</p><p>Ben stood up, tensing his body up as much as he could, to stay in control. "Klaus is just being a <em>wonderful brother—</em>shut up! You're being a dick!"</p><p>"Kl—Ben?" Allison said. "Are you feeling okay?"</p><p>"We're <em>fine</em>," both of them said. It was an odd feeling. Ben felt his body shaking, even though it wasn't. Not really. "I just need to—<em>we're sitting down again—</em>no we're not—<em>yes we are—</em>stop being ridiculous, you're making a fool out—<em>sorry, whose body were we using agai—</em>it's not my fault you can't bring yourself to manifest a single—<em>that's not fair—you're</em> not fair—<em>I swear to God, Ben, I'm going to—"</em></p><p>It all happened in a blink of an eye.</p><p>For starters, Ben was definitely not in Klaus' body anymore. He could see Klaus staring down at him with wide-open eyes, while Ben's body collapsed on the floor, as if he had been literally thrown there, and it hurt—</p><p>It hurt.</p><p>His fingers curled around the fabric of the carpet, and he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He rubbed his head with one arm, his eyes never leaving Klaus'. Once he got on his feet, he was going to kill him. He was going to kill him, because somehow he managed to make the pain permanent, and his head hurt, and—</p><p>"Ben?"</p><p>He jumped, his eyes locking with Diego's. Then Allison's. Then, slowly, everyone else's.</p><p>"You guys can see me?"</p><p>As always, it'd been an accident.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know this was like, probably one of my most rushed fics, but as I said before, I really wanted to post it before S2, because apparently... yes. I haven't actually seen any of the leaked scenes, and I've managed to keep away from spoilers as much as I can, but JUST IN CASE this is something that happens... you heard it here first uwu.</p><p>CAN YOU BELIEVE SEASON 2 IS COMING TOMORROW? In less than 24 hours? IN A FEW HOURS. I'm so excited!! Are you guys gonna binge-watch it or do one/a few episodes per day? (I'm definitely binge-watching. We bought snacks and everything, I'm ready.)</p><p>You can also <a href="https://evelinaonline.tumblr.com/">find me on tumblr (evelinaonline)</a>! (And also please come scream to me about S2, I'm so excited.)</p><p>Anyway, next time you see me, it's probably going to be with a S2 fanfic... :3</p><p>Hope everyone enjoys S2 and has a great day! Thank you for reading &lt;33</p></blockquote></div></div>
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